Photo Exclusive: STREEP TEASE at Joe's Pub

The audience came to a stand still when stage actor BRyan Donovan -- who's channeling the cold and intimidating Sister Aloysius (Doubt) in a nun's black habit and hood -- made a grand entrance through the audience at the recent New York debut of Streep Tease, an evening of monologues culled from Meryl Streep's current database of 49 movies performed with an all-male cast.

A critically-acclaimed new cult comedy that originated from one of Los Angeles' comedy venues, Bang Improv, Streep Tease's monologue line-up heavily relied on the present cast members' personal favorite movies that had starred Ms. Streep.

"We had actors who personally chose to perform excerpts from The Bridges of Madison County and Angels in America during our first run in Los Angeles. Unfortunately, the actors who did these monologues could not commit to an encore performance due to previous commitments. But we've been very much open to new acts from actors who are joining the cast. The show continues to evolve that way," said Roy Cruz, the show's creator and co-producer.

Apart from the excerpts from The Devil Wears Prada (performed by Cruz), A Cry in the Dark (performed by Drew Droege), Silkwood (peformed by Trent Walker), Out of Africa (performed by David Dean Bottrell), Still of the Night (performed by Joel Scher), a monologue extracted from 22 Meryl Streep movies ( performed by Ron Morehouse), monologues from Doubt (performed by Donovan) and The French Lieutenant's Woman (performed by Matthew Nouriel) were new additions to the show that premiered at Joe's Pub.

Streep Tease at Joe's Pub had attempted to strike a balance between comedic and dramatic monologues.  However, whenever a monologue was leaning toward heavier emotions, the show also started to fall flat especially that of Scher's monologue from Still of the Night. The comedic parts worked best -- Bottrell's take on Out of Africa was outright hilarious.

Streep Tease | Director:  Ezra Weiss | Producers:  Roy Cruz and Kenneth Hartung | Choreographer:  Fred Tallaksen | Additional Music Arranger:  Ronobir Lahiri | Additional Costume Design:  Occidental College Theater Development

Photos by Oliver Oliveros